PARIS—“I welcome the spirit of dialogue and responsibility that has allowed a consensual decision to be reached in the framework of the Executive Board during its discussions concerning the Middle East,’’ said Audrey Azoulay, Director General of UNESCO, the UN agency for culture and education, as no new condemnations of Israel was passed during its Executive Board meeting on Thursday.
Members signed off on a rare compromise resolution Thursday on “Occupied Palestine.”
The resolution includes a one-and-a-half page annex that refers to UNESCO’s prior decisions on Israel and “Palestine,” and also a decision to include this agenda on UNESCO’s 250th session, to be convened next November.
“This spirit of consensus opens up a new positive dynamic within UNESCO. I thank all the delegations that have worked towards this, notably the representatives of the Palestinian, Israeli, Jordanian, American, and European Union delegations. The Secretariat of UNESCO will continue to be involved as a dialogue facilitator for Member States,’’ said Azoulay.
The move, agreed upon by a consensus after a couple of weeks of indirect negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians, was applauded by Israel’s ambassador Carmel Shama Hacohen.
Israel and the US are slated to pull out of the UN’s cultural and education body at the end of the year because of its previous anti-Israel resolutions.
Shama Hacohen said that Israel is very pleased by the latest outcome, and thanked the organization’s new director-general – as well as the American team at UNESCO – for their efforts in brokering it.
“This is a very positive step. I am not sure if Israel would have decided to leave the organization had such efforts and resolutions been adopted in past years,” the Israeli ambassador said.
Since taking over the Paris-based organization in November, Azoulay, a former Minister of Culture in France, has been working to clean up the agency’s reputation and shore up a budget gutted by geopolitical disputes.